Mermaids lolling in a tropical sea are the irresistible stars of this richly printed chromolithograph trade card for Ayer's Hair Vigor — one bare-shouldered siren passes a pink bottle of the tonic to a companion who brushes her long auburn waves with a hairbrush, while a third looks on admiringly, all framed by waving palm fronds and a shipwreck scene in the glowing background distance where more mermaids cavort in the surf. The card was prepared by Dr. J.C. Ayer & Co. of Lowell, Massachusetts, one of the most prolific patent medicine advertisers of the 19th century, and their trade cards are among the most avidly collected in the hobby. Ayer's Hair Vigor claimed to restore gray hair to its "natural vitality and color" — the irony of mermaids, who presumably never need hair-care products, advertising a tonic was presumably intentional whimsy. The reverse carries Ayer's Hair Vigor text advertising with a bottle illustration; significant paper loss from prior album mounting has obscured most of the text.